Within the context of the EuroCC 2 project and as a part of the National Competence Center (NCC) on High-Performance Computing (HPC), we are open to collaborations with companies to work on their computational problems. The NCC is coordinated by TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM, and İstanbul Technical University, Middle East Technical University, Sabancı University are its current partners. Depending on the expertise, you may want to work with any of the NCC partners.
Here are some questions and our answers on the details of these collaborations:
- What is the scope of the EuroCC 2?
The first two years of the project, namely EuroCC, aimed to increase the awareness and competence on High-Performance Computing in Europe. It established National Competence Centres (NCCs) in the participating countries, which were responsible for surveying and documenting the core HPC, HPDA, and AI activities and enriching the competencies in their respective countries. In addition, the NCCs will coordinate activities in all HPC-related fields at the national level and serve as a contact point for users from industry, science, (future) HPC experts, and the general public alike.
The EuroCC 2 project is a continuation of EuroCC project. In this context, NCC Türkiye will coordinate NCC activities to create collaboration between academia, industry, and the public sector for HPC solutions in material science, molecular dynamics, bioinformatics, fluid dynamics, machine learning, and, artificial intelligence etc. In addition, to increase the use of EuroHPC JU resources, it is aimed to create a service portfolio, to develop existing competencies and to reveal new competencies.
- What is the scope of this collaboration?
If you are a company with a problem that can be computationally solved, or if using HPC can decrease your design/production, etc. costs, NCC Türkiye can share its expertise with you, guide you to the correct technology/hardware/software/algorithm, as well as to the correct set of educational resources. In addition, NCC Türkiye can help you to design/transform/parallelize your code/software and run them on a modern HPC cluster with high efficiency. This being said the extent of our part within these PoCs is limited by consultancy, and depending on the complexity of the problem. Experts will not develop a ready-to-use software and/or solution for the participating company for a PoC study.
- Does the company pay for this consultancy? What is expected from us during this collaboration?
No. There is no financial responsibility and the consultancy and guidance will be provided for free. However, our expertise from previous PoCs showed us that the companies must dedicate a sufficient amount of manpower to implement the solutions and internalize the know-how provided for a successful PoC.
- Our company is working in the X sector? Are we eligible?
Yes. Although the project prioritizes Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Data Science, any company from any sector can apply to the center for a PoCs and use the free services if it has an HPC-related problem and/or questions for its computational needs.
- We don’t have any computing resources in the company, how can this collaboration help us?
If the company and the PoC are accepted by the NCC, a sufficient amount of free computation time/resources will be provided by TRUBA to implement the solution(s). The HPC clusters TRUBA has and manages are equipped with cutting-edge computational resources. During the PoC study, NCC Türkiye will guide you how to leverage them for your business.
- We do not know much about High-Performance Computing but have computational needs. Can we still carry out with a PoC?
Yes. You do not need to have expertise in HPC. With this case study, you will gain expertise on what you can (and cannot) do with HPC.
- We keep our codes/software internal and do not follow an open-source policy. Do we need to release the solutions for public access after the collaboration?
No. As mentioned before, although NCC Türkiye’ experts will help and guide you on the design and analysis phases, the actual solutions will be developed and implemented by the company. Hence, unless otherwise stated, you will keep all the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). However, depending on the agreement between the expert(s) and the company, and based on the amount of the contribution from the expert(s), various forms of financial partnerships and spin-off companies are possible (and encouraged). In any case, the NCC will not be involved in these partnerships and companies. This is solely in between the expert(s) and the company.
- We do not have the necessary software license in the company? Can you provide it?
No. The center will not provide any commercial license. However, if you have one and would like to use it on TRUBA, it may be possible to deploy it to the clusters. If this is not the case there exists excellent open-source software our experts are currently working with which can be used for the PoC studies. If none of these holds, although this is not applicable for some software licenses, the NCC partners may already have the necessary software license. In this case, a PoC may be developed within the premises of the partner entity. However, in any case, the license will not be used by the company after the PoC. It must be provided by the company for sustainability.
- The secrecy of the data/code the company has is crucial. How can we collaborate?
We have successful, ongoing PoCs with similar concerns. For such collaborations, we use Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). If your company does not have expertise on NDAs our TTOs and law departments can help us to prepare a suitable one.
- We are a large-scale company. Is this collaboration opportunity for SMEs only?
No. Although SMEs have priority, we are open to collaboration with your company. In fact, we have a few large-scale companies currently we are working with.
- Will this collaboration make the company a partner of the project/center?
No. Although we will be happy if you want to share your HPC knowledge by organizing seminars, tutorial sessions, etc. during our events, the NCC structure is fixed. Still, if you want to share your HPC expertise please fill this form.
- To initiate the PoC, will we apply to a project together?
No. The project has already been started. As mentioned before, it aims to increase the awareness and competence on High-Performance Computing. The industrial POC are designed to help the companies in Türkiye to assess and satisfy their computational needs which is one of the main goals of the NCC.
- What do we need to publish after the PoC, and where will we post material about it?
We expect a PoC final report to be prepared and published on our website at the end of the project. However, the company can also post additional data and knowledge, for example, research datasets, technical reports, videos, etc., using an appropriate license under the NCC Türkiye community in the Turkish open-access repository Aperta. All the PoCs’ materials will be accessible from the NCC Türkiye website. https://eurocc.truba.gov.tr/?page_id=6509&lang=en
